8. CitizenFour

In January 2013, director Laura Poitras received encrypted emails from a source identifying himself as “citizen four”. He would discuss the government’s technological reach in monitoring its citizens, outlining how your smart phone is spying on you. Poitras, along with journalist Glenn Greenwald, would go on to make a frightening documentary thriller with the source: Edward Snowden. Few documentaries this year will have an impact like this revelatory doc. The Academy will recognize.